does anyone actually know what the S on supermans chest stands for???? i know it is his family crest..?

Question

and it doesnt originally stand for superman.... when he came to earth people assumed it was for superman and it didnt mean that...

Answer 1

Actually, according to Wikipedia....


The "S" shield is most often elucidated as a Kryptonian symbol of some kind, though it is "translated" variously by different writers. The Kryptonian origin of the symbol is not apparent in the original Siegel and Schuster comics, where it presumably stood for 'Superman'. In the DVD commentary for the 1978 Superman: the Movie, Richard Donner, the film's director, claims that the he and his writers were the first people to have conceived the idea of the 'S' symbol as having Kryptonian origins. In the movie it was shown as a sort of family crest, first seen being worn by Jor-El (played by Marlon Brando) on Krypton. The most recent explanation in the comics, offered in the title 52, is that the sigil is the Kyptonian glyph for hope (and that when inverted it means resurrection). Kal-El chooses to wear the symbol to honor his Kryptonian heritage and it is misread by Earthlings as an "S," sometimes inspiring the moniker "Superman" in The Daily Planet's headlines.

Answer 2

Well actually originally it did stand for S for Superman. The concept of "retcon" comes into play here. Retroactive continuity...means the writers of Superman (and lots of other stuff) change the past story to fit their current writing.

So Superman's S in the 30-s up to the big re-do in the 80's originally just stood for S and was sewn by Ma Kent. It now stands for something in the family crest. (kind of silly since why would the letter S in Krypotonese look like an english S.

(proving comic readers have no life...I just read my own post roflol)

Answer 3

The 'S' was actually the family crest in the first Superman movie. Marlon Brando apparently came up with the idea to use it that way. The comics then adopted a similar idea, but the 'S' was changed to the Kryptonian symbol for HOPE rather than the family crest.

Answer 4

The details of Superman's origin, changed significantly during the course of the character's publication.
In the golden age comics and the Silver Age comics Jor-El Superman's father don’t have an S on his chest. Only on the Superman movie the S is portraited as a family crest, in golden age comics there is a Saturn like planet on Jor-El’s chest. In the most recent canonized origin for Superman, Birthright, the shield is a Kryptonian symbol for hope, and not only is it worn by Jor-El. it adorns all manner of Kryptonian flags, clothing, spaceships and equipment.

Answer 5

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster - creators of Superman in 1933. The original comic had Martha Kent making the costume for young Clark out of the indestructible blankets they had found the boy in. She put the S on it for Superboy - later Superman. The other stories about it being a Krypton family crest or symbol didn't come until much later.

Answer 6

It stands for Superman. Don't let Richard Donner's films fool you. The symbol never came around until he was grown up on Earth.

Answer 7

The S stood for Superboy as per Martha Kent making the costume for the teenaged Clark...

as for what it means now...
Degendave nailed it. When upright the sigil means hope...and when inverted means ressurection.

Answer 8

it came from his home world and it was on the message to him from his parents that the kents gave him and only he could open. louis lane was the one who named him superman because of the s

Answer 9

whatelse could it stand for apart from superman? Spoon, Slipper, Sandwich?

Answer 10

Supreme